


A Larrabee Christmas

by MaeveBran



Category: Sabrina (1954)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-19
Updated: 2012-12-19
Packaged: 2017-11-21 13:06:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,112
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/598094
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MaeveBran/pseuds/MaeveBran
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sabrina Fairchild Larrabee looked around the ballroom in the mansion on the North Shore of Long Island. It was decorated for Christmas, just as it had always been. It was tasteful, elegant, lavish, and perfect.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Larrabee Christmas

**Author's Note:**

  * For [GreenRoses](https://archiveofourown.org/users/GreenRoses/gifts).



> Thanks to my beta (whose name I will edit in after the reveal.)

Sabrina Fairchild Larrabee looked around the ballroom in the mansion on the North Shore of Long Island. It was decorated for Christmas, just as it had always been. It was tasteful, elegant, lavish, and perfect.

The first time Sabrina had seen the ballroom like this had been shortly after her family had arrived to work for the Larrabees when she had been five years old. That first Christmas, two months after her father had become the Larrabees’ chauffeur, had been a wonder to Sabrina. She had been dressed in her best dress and brought into the ballroom, before the party, and had been handed a package from under the tree. It had been wrapped with shiny silver paper and a huge white satin bow. The whole family had been there watching. Mrs. Larrabee with a gracious and benevolent smile, Mr. Larrabee kindly patient while she carefully slid the bow off the package, David with a bored attitude that only a teenage boy could have toward a young girl, and lastly was Linus Larrabee. He watched her with some amusement as she carefully slid a finger under the tape so as to not rip the fine paper and unwrap the porcelain doll. Sabrina had thanked the Larrabees. Mr. Larrabee had handed her father an envelope and then the Fairchild family had been dismissed to their own celebrations. But Sabrina had never forgotten the elegance of the Larrabee Christmas. In fact, she still had the doll, perched on a shelf in the room that had been hers above the garage.

The second Christmas that stood out in Sabrina’s mind as the epitome of a Larrabee Christmas, she had been thirteen. The ritual of the Fairchilds and other staff joining the Larrabee family in the ballroom for a short celebration had continued. Mrs. Larrabee would hand out packages to the children of the staff. In the eight years since that first Christmas several of the staff had had families so now there were a half dozen children including Sabrina, and Mr. Larrabee handed their parents a card with the Christmas bonus inside. Then the staff and their families were dismissed to either their own celebrations or to prepare for the party.

After their supper and family present exchange, Mr. and Mrs. Fairchild went back to the main house to help with the party. Sabrina went as well. She found a spot on the balcony that let her watch the glittering adults dance below and still remain out of sight.

She must not have been completely out of sight, for just a half hour after she had settled to watch the party, Linus Larrabee found her.

“What are you doing here, Sabrina?” he asked, amused to see her there.

“Watching,” Sabrina sighed, as David whirled into view with a pretty young debutante in his arms. “It is so lovely.”

Linus looked over the balcony and saw what she was gazing at. “David does dance well.”

Sabrina smiled and hummed along to the music playing and unconsciously swayed with it.

“I’m nowhere near as good as David is,” Linus said. “Lack of practice on my part, I suppose, but if you’d like a turn, I could do all right.”

“I’m not dressed for down there,” Sabrina demurred.

“Well, we could dance right here,” he extended his hand.

“We could,” Sabrina said as she placed her hand in his. They waltzed around the balcony for the rest of the song. When it was over, Linus executed a perfect bow and took his leave to rejoin the party below. Sabrina stayed and watched until midnight and went to bed, dreaming about attending one of the parties herself someday.

The next two Christmases that Sabrina thought of, while looking around the Larrabee ballroom, did not take place here. They were the two most recent ones, the ones she had spent in France. 

Her first French Christmas had been lonely. She had spent the day by herself after attending Midnight Mass at the Cathedral de Notre Dame de Paris. She had enjoyed the service, though she had hardly understood it because her French was not up to it. She had made herself a special meal and savored it as she read letters from home and opened the package her Father had sent.

Her second French Christmas was infinitely better. She had been invited to the Baron St. Fontanel’s country estate and she had accepted the invitation. It had been a two week house party of the who’s who of French society. Sabrina hadn’t expected to have fun, but she had. The Baron had treated her like a daughter he had never had and introduced her to a young Marquis, a fellow Baron, and the second son of an English Duke. 

The house had been magnificent- a small chateau from the seventeenth century filled with antiques and decorated with greenery, red velvet ribbons, and tinsel. The food had been superb. The Baron himself made the Buche de Noel. The food and company almost made Sabrina forget how unhappy she was away from her family and David.  
It had snowed on the day after Christmas and Sabrina and the younger guests had made snowmen and had a snowball fight. It hadn’t been particularly dignified, but tremendous fun. The Baron and his contemporaries had watched while sipping hot toddies and smiled at their antics. All in all, it had been nearly perfect.

This Christmas, though, was poised to be even more perfect than that last one. Sabrina couldn’t believe it as she looked around the ballroom. In moments, the staff and their families would be filing in for their gifts and bonuses, but now the room was empty save for her. She walked around room and remembered. She had longed to be here as part of the family and she was. She had always thought she’d be Mrs. David Larrabee but instead she was Mrs. Linus Larrabee and it was more perfect than she could have ever imagined.

“There you are,” her husband said as he walked into the room.

“Here I am,” she said as she walked over to him. “I was just remembering all the Christmases here.”

“When you watched from the balcony,” Linus said.

“You found me once,” Sabrina returned.

“I did,” Linus agreed as extended his hand towards her. “May I have this dance?”

“There is no music,” Sabrina laughed as she took his hand.

“We could always hum,” Linus suggested.

Sabrina laughed and started to hum. Linus joined her as they danced around the empty room. Life had turned out differently than she had ever expected. But it had turned out far better than she had expected as well.


End file.
